Title:
Jurassic World
Director: Colin Trevorrow
Released: 2015
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard,
Irrfan Khan, Vincent D’Onofrio, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Jake Johnson, Omar
Sy, BD Wong, Judy Greer, Lauren Lapkus
Plot: Twenty-two years after the events of
the original film, Isla Nublar is now the fully functioning dinosaur theme park
that John Hammond had envisioned. However after 10 years of operating, the park
is starting to lose its appeal to visitors leading to the creation of a new
dinosaur named Indominus Rex only for it to soon break out of its enclosure put
the park staff in a race against time to stop it.
Review:
Ok so perhaps this review is coming more than a bit late to the party, which at
this point no doubt consists of a few scattered die hard fans still dissecting the film and an absence of onion
dip and while this is no doubt one review amongst the hundreds which have been
published since the film’s release to huge box office success and smashing the
record held by “The Avengers: Age of Ultron”, something which was hardly surprisingly
seeing how we are still talking about the original films even after all this
time, with the buzz leading up to the film’s release easily being comparable to
that of “Mad Max: Fury Road”. Still coming out of the film I felt I needed to
get something written down about this film, if only to try and figure out what
was missing / broken with this film which upon the credits rolling left me with
mixed feelings about what I had just watched.
Taking
a break from the usual dino island antics of the last two films, the film this
time essentially gives us what many of us wanted to see after the first film
and that’s the fully functioning theme park that John Hammond has envisioned in
the first film and whose fully operational state had been teased during the
lunch scene between the main characters as a slide show of coming attractions
played on the screen around them. Considering some of the ideas which had come
up during the long production history for this film, I’m glad that this is the
one they went with, rather than any of the more random ones which would have
seen raptors being used by the military's bio-weapon division let alone the more
random dino-soldier hybrid idea which seemingly has refused to die after being
rejected for part 3.
Here
the film takes what essentially is the next logical step for the franchise, as
the park now faces difficulty keeping the interest of its visitors who have long
since outgrown the awe and wonder of seeing these extinct creatures being
brought back, while the corporation running the park have turned it into a garish
Disney World style attraction complete with a dino petting zoo and their
Mosasurus being used to put on “Sea World” style performances as she drenches
delighted audiences a tent pole scene in the trailer which surprisingly still
played well. Needless to say this is the vision that CEO Simon Masrani (Khan)
wants for the park as he continues the boundless enthusiasm that Hammond had
for the park which he has now inherited, with the passing of Richard Attenborough being written into the
film and who here we being honoured with a statue in the park, while Stan
Winston also gets honoured for his ground breaking special effects work on the
previous films by a restaurant chain called “Winston”.
These
nods to the previous films Trevorrow scatters throughout the film making this
as much a tribute to the previous films as it is a sequel and varies in how
obvious they are from the skeleton of the spinosaurous and Tim’s night vision
goggles, though to the more obscure such as a scrap of the “When Dinosaurs
Ruled the Earth” banner and blood droplets mirroring Malcom’s Chaos theory pick
up technique we see him using on Ellie in the first film. Of course great
pleasure for the fans can be found in trying to spot all these references and
brought back memories of gleefully pointing out new footage when they released
the special editions of the “Star Wars” saga, only this time no one is having their
childhood memories crushed.
Despite
the solid frame work Trevorrow builds for the film, it unfortunately runs afoul
of trying to combine to many plotlines as we have the brothers Zach (Robinson)
and Gray (Simpkins) visiting the park were their aunt Claire (Howard) works as
the operations manager. We also have the ongoing battle between Velociraptor
rainer Owen (Pratt) battling with the head of InGen’s security opertions Vic (D’Onofrio)
who is constantly pushing for the use of dinosaurs as weapons. From here we
also get a variety of minor plotlines being spun off, including the divorce of
Zach and Gray’s parents and the hidden motives of Dr. Wu which sees B.D. Wong
returning to the role he played in the first film in a greatly increased role,
though frustratingly one which leaves us questioning if he is as evil as his
black turtleneck suggests while his characters actions seem to have been
written mainly to give this film a lead into an inevitable sequel.
Thankfully
there is enough fun dino action to distract from the films flaws with the Indominus
Rex seemingly representing the audiences expectations for bigger and better, as
it has the ability to camouflage and hide from heat sensors thanks to some of
the borrowed DNA in its makeup. The raptors once more get the majority of the
focus thank that’s to Owen’s wrangling techniques which ultimately come off
more hit and miss when put into play while someone clearly felt that the much maligned
talking dino gimmick from part 3 needed to come back and once again feels as
clumsy as it did previously. Still there
is at least plenty of varieties to hold your attention while Trevorrow manages
to find serval unique demises for the parks visitors and staff, while ensuring
that were possible the dinosaurs are kept to the forefront whenever possible,
clearly knowing the reason audiences are showing up. Sadly though the effect
doesn’t seem to have the same freshness they once did, with the lines between
the CGI and practical effects surprisingly more obvious, this is especially surprisingly
when you consider that the effects are being handled by “Legacy” the studio
which was formed in the wake of Stan Winston’s death. At the same time I couldn’t
tell if this line being so obvious was more down to the fact I was watching the
film in HD rather than the technique being used and which tends to highlight
such things further.
Ultimately
the film hits the beats you want to hit, even though the experience frequently
feels like something is lacking / missing and while it might be fun to see
random cast members being turned into dino chow again you can’t help wonder if
the film is riding off the legacy of the series and that if presented as a
standalone film would we would be so forgiving? As such this is a flawed yet
enjoyable return to the park and hopefully the wait for the next visit won’t be
so long, especially when it leaves the series with plenty of room to grow.